2 September 2026 News

Healthcare : Guangzhoushi Fulian (广州市妇联) has rolled out an “assurance service certificate” for domestic service workers with support from the municipal commerce bureau, introducing AI facial recognition and OCR technology to achieve “one person, one certificate, one code,” and exploring deep applications of large language models and digital humans in domestic services, promoting a transition in domestic service from “person serving person” to “person plus digital human plus robot serving person.” Digital humans are expected to assume auxiliary functions such as domestic service consultation and matching in the future.

Marketing : Digital humans and AI virtual personalities are becoming deeply embedded in brand marketing and commercial endorsement fields, presenting a landscape of both opportunities and risks. Zhongguo Wangqiu Gongkaisai (中国网球公开赛) collaborated with Fenyu Xingqiu (粉鱼星球) and Volcano Engine to launch AI avatar Flora of Dai Yanni, who interacts with real people on screen during live streams, becoming the world’s first case of a celebrity AI personality systematically constructed and entering commercial scenarios. Fenyu Xingqiu (粉鱼星球) leveraged this to build a reusable “AI personality asset” operations system and rolled out Dai Yanni’s exclusive AI companion collectible LUMI AI FLORA. Baidu Yijing (百度一镜) joined forces with Kekoukele (可口可乐) to create a “real-time interactive digital human of Fan Zhiyi” that launched on Kekoukele (可口可乐)’s mini program during the World Cup, enabling 24/7 interactive match-viewing companionship with response latency controlled within 2 seconds, and achieving the commercial implementation of dialect-level IP voice cloning. The case won the Top Innovative Marketing Impact (AI) award at the 2026 Busan International Advertising Festival. Meanwhile, controversies involving AI virtual endorsers have emerged frequently: the female lead Fang Taozi from the AI short drama “The Girl Who Got Laid Off” faced scrutiny for recommending contact lenses (Class III medical devices) in first-person narrative, allegedly fabricating user experience, leading to the ad being taken down. Anhui Chuzhou Langyaqu Shichang Jianguanju (安徽滁州琅琊区市场监管局) launched an investigation, with lawyers pointing out that Fang Taozi lacks legal qualification as an advertising endorser, yet advertisers and operators still bear responsibility for truthfulness. Fang Taozi subsequently appeared on the cover of the digital edition of Vogue COSMO, becoming the first AI actress featured on the covers of five major publications, but sparked controversy over suspected “face-fusion” celebrity features, prompting the official account to close its comment section. The boundaries between celebrity likenesses and AI licensing have also generated discussion. Qi Wei launched personal digital avatar “Han Qingxia” and opened AI licensing for use in anime dramas, virtual live streaming and other commercial scenarios, but faced controversy over borderline scenes. Anita Mui’s youthful image was used in Wangyi Youxi (网易游戏)’s “Tian Xia” AIGC advertisement “Shadow of Beauty,” with artists including Wu Qihua, You Benzhang, Mai Changqing, and Huang Zhihan subsequently licensing AI restoration of their youthful images for film, television and advertising creation. Football star Neymar’s digital image licensing was utilized by COL Group Co., Ltd.’s subsidiary FlareFlow to produce 16 AI short dramas.

Entertainment : The film and television entertainment sector is experiencing large-scale penetration by AI virtual characters and digital actors. Mangguo TV (芒果TV) AIGC Innovation Content Center produced and Bojing Wenhua (伯璟文化) co-produced the domestic premiere prime-time AI long-form series “Post Journey to the West,” leveraging ByteDance Seedance 2.0/2.5 technology. The 30-episode series, with 40-minute episodes, was created entirely through AIGC for visuals and character performances with no real actors involved, employing a “production-review-broadcast” simultaneous model that debuted on Hunanweishi (湖南卫视)’s prime time on August 31st and drove Mango Excellent Media’s stock price up 20CM to its daily limit. The series has generated 109 character assets and 143 scene assets through the “Mangguo Lingchuang (芒果灵创)” platform. Previously, Anhui Weishi (安徽卫视) broadcast “The Tale of Peach Blossom Pool,” the country’s first fully AI non-heritage web series to obtain a web drama distribution license, and Zhejiang Television aired “Chinese Legend: White Snake,” the first prime-time AI micro-short drama. iQIYI and Zhangxin Chuanmei (长信传媒) released the “Fleeting Dream” series of “Soul Ferry,” combining human voice acting with motion transfer technology for classic IP continuation development. The AI short-drama sector has produced virtual actors with independent personalities and social accounts, such as “The Laid-off Girl,” whose protagonist Fang Taozi attracted 400,000 followers within 30 days of debut, posting personified vlogs in first-person perspective, with advertising rates for videos over 60 seconds reaching 258,000 yuan, commercial value at one point surpassing real-person influencers. However, controversies surrounding “face-merging” from AI generation have continued to ferment, with suspicions of merging features of celebrities including Nana Komatsu, Minji, and Hanni. Dui Ba Jituan (兑吧集团)’s AI short-drama business, after launching in January 2026, generated 223 million yuan in revenue in its first half year, accounting for 51.2% of group total revenue, with full-network broadcast volume exceeding 5 billion views and producing 13 mega-hit dramas with over 100 million views. Kunlun Tech released SkyReels, the world’s first AI short-drama platform integrating video and 3D large models, and introduced the Tiangong Short Drama Workstation SkyProduction, which consolidates multiple video models to build an industrialized production system of “script-to-finished-film.” Its overseas short-drama platform DramaWave has completed AI-native transformation, with over 90% of new episodes generated by AI as of July 2026. Simultaneously, AI face-stealing and voice-theft problems occur frequently. Voice actor Ma Zhengyang alleged that the popular drama “Nine Gates” spin-off and advertisements stole his voice; the production company “Chengdu Wanhou (成都顽猴)” responded that the similarity resulted from automatic generation using the Jimeng AI tool. Experts from Fudandaxue (复旦大学) and Zhongguokejidaxue (中国科技大学) pointed out that future biometric information such as gait and iris patterns could also potentially be stolen by AI, requiring coordinated governance through legislation, regulation, and judicial measures.

Cultural : Digital human technology is being widely applied across cultural tourism, education, and public cultural dissemination scenarios. At Yili Jiangjun Fu (伊犁将军府), Shiyou Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. deployed “Bota AI digital humans” modeled after successive Ili Generals with 1:1 restoration, serving as scenic area tour guides providing multilingual commentary and emotional interaction, and combined with MR mixed reality technology to create fifteen immersive historical scene restorations, including restoration of the General’s Mansion main hall ruins and official and soldier patrol guard duty, while also applying dynamic processing to classical paintings such as “The Pacification of Ili Reception of Surrender Map.” Hainan 《 Guoji Lvyou Dao Shangbao 》 (海南《国际旅游岛商报》) launched new AI anchor digital humans Wang Song and Shi Rou, based on 1:1 restoration of real journalists’ images and voices, focusing on news broadcasting regarding Hainan Free Trade Port construction. Beijing Xichengqu (西城区) “Check-in Guxi Stroll Down Slant Street” cultural consumption activity launched cartoon virtual character “Guxi Xi” as street culture recommendation officer, providing voice guidance and hutong history storytelling services through the “Cloud Guxi” mini-program. The AI-native content creation competition held by Hainan Dongfang Shi (东方市) focuses on digital human city IP creation and digitalized dissemination of Li ethnic intangible cultural heritage. Zhengzhou Keji Yijie Xiaoxue (郑州科技一街小学) deployed “Curious Window with Clever Questions” terminals, equipped with education-specific large models and digital human technology, presenting AI virtual images of renowned figures from China and abroad including Li Bai, Turing, Zhang Heng, Lu Ban, and Da Vinci for student interactive Q&A. Chengdu Qizhong Chuzhong Fushuxiaoxue (成都七中初中附属小学) applied AI technology during the opening ceremony to restore virtual images of revolutionary predecessors, constructing a time-space dialogue platform spanning a century for student interaction. Shiji Huatong (世纪华通) in the “Science in Games” science popularization program features the classic “Scholar” profession from the game “Dragon’s Dogma” serving as a virtual host explaining scientific principles in game scenario design. During Guiyang Shu Bohui (贵阳数博会), the metalcore virtual artist “Zhengyang” made an appearance, with its image and music driven by prototype provided by singer Zheng Tai Monster (Li Yang), with modeling and AI driving handled by Wosike Ji (沃斯科技), and partnering with Guiyang cultural tourism and expressway scenarios, with its debut single “Rock Cloud Up” landing as a city cultural tourism IP audio asset.

Enterprise : Digital human technology is being widely applied in enterprise services, recruitment, and operational scenarios. Xiningshi Chengzhongqu Ren Sheju (西宁市城中区人社局) adopted AI digital human livestream job placement and AI job-seeking assistant tools at its entrepreneurship recruitment event, with the AI livestream job placement reaching 240,000 viewings that evening. China Merchants Bank disclosed that AI contributed equivalent human working hours of 13.88 million hours in efficiency improvement, and established a government affairs AI intelligent customer service and AI digital human service system covering public provident funds, education, healthcare and other scenarios, with institutional scenario AI intelligent customer service and digital humans cumulatively serving 37.6649 million person-times. Niujiang Keji (牛匠科技)’s “Niujiang Zhaogong (牛匠找工)” platform opened AI intelligent matching and digital human short video matrix, helping small and medium-sized recruiters reduce customer acquisition costs. Guangdong Caimao Zhiye Xueyuan (广东财贸职业学院)’s rural technology extension team conducted digital human e-commerce practical training in Matabu Town, Maoming, guiding returning entrepreneurs to master the full-process technology of digital human modeling, voice synthesis, video generation, and e-commerce integration, for use in agricultural product livestream sales and rural brand promotion. Beijing Jetsen Technology Co., Ltd.’s self-developed AI intelligent content creation engine ChatPV provides film and television re-creation, one-click video generation, digital humans, and text-to-video functions; its affiliated enterprise Shiyou Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. has cumulatively “revived” over 600 virtual IP images through “motion capture technology.” Zhongzhi Gufen (中智股份) constructed a “Guangmou (光眸)” AI digital human and other digitalized product matrix serving the human resources industry. Wugang Jituan (武钢集团) created an AIGC short video work “Qing Xiaolang·Light Chaser,” using the virtual digital character “Qing Xiaolang” as a narrative vehicle to tell stories of young employee growth, winning the top ten at China Baowu Good Stories AIGC Works Collection Contest. Jinjiang Jiudian (锦江酒店)’s long-term rental apartment brand Tuling Gongyu (途羚公寓) launched a digital IP image “Ling Xiaotuㄴ” for brand promotion.

Ethical Contexts : The unauthorized use of biometric information from AI virtual humans and digital humans continues to spark legal and ethical discussions. Voice actor Ma Zhengyang’s voice was suspected of being misappropriated for AI-generated advertisements and spin-off dramas, and the production company Chengdu Wanhou (成都顽猴) acknowledged using the Jimeng AI tool for generation but failed to verify the voice source; Zhang Weibing, deputy director of Zhongguokejidaxue (中国科技大学) Cybersecurity Academy, pointed out that the phenomenon of AI foundation large models scraping publicly available online resources for model training is widespread, and in the future difficult-to-alter biometric characteristics such as gait and iris patterns could also potentially be included in the scope of misappropriation. He and Ma Xingjun, a young researcher at Fudandaxue (复旦大学) Trusted Embodied Intelligence Research Institute, both emphasized the need for coordinated governance through legislation, judicial action, regulation, technology, and industry self-discipline. Zhang Weibing’s team proposed implicit watermarking technologies such as “timbre rights watermarking” for tracing material sources. The AI virtual human Fang Tao’s endorsement of contact lens advertisements sparked discussion about whether AI possesses legal standing as an advertising endorser. Lawyer Ma Lihong pointed out that the advertisement is suspected of fabricating user experience and constitutes false advertising; the current Advertising Law does not explicitly categorize AI within the scope of endorsers, but advertisers and operators still bear responsibility for truthfulness. A Liaoning Daily commentary noted that “I am AI” cannot serve as a disclaimer for false advertising. The boundaries between actor portrait rights authorization and AI infringement have likewise drawn attention. Artists including Qi Wei, Maggie Cheung, Wu Qihua, and You Bensheng proactively opened digital avatar authorizations, viewed as a “proactive approach” to counter AI infringement chaos, while previously performers including Yang Zi, Jackson Yee, Gong Jun, and Tan Jianxue issued statements demanding removal of unauthorized AI-generated content due to AI infringement. Instagram announced mandatory requirements for AI virtual influencer accounts to display “AI-generated account” labels on personal homepages and in content, with non-compliant accounts facing traffic restrictions and weight reduction, a move regarded as a representative initiative by global social platforms in governing the transparency of AI virtual identities and holding reference significance for domestic AI virtual human industry compliance and development.